Wire cutting machine



March 18, 1941.

F. C. MUNTWYLER wrmz: CUTTING momma Filed Jan. 15, 1940 4 Sheets-Sheet 1March 18, 1941.

F. C. MUNTWYLER wmn cu'rnm IACHINE Filed Jan. 15, 1940 '4 Shuts-Sheet 4Patented Mar. 18, 1941 Fredric (l. Himmler,

Wire Sales Company, tion of Illinois Oak Park. m. assignor to Chicago,111., a corpora- Application 1min 15 1940, Serial No. 313,855

a '1 Claims. (01. 140-148) The machine of the present invention isdesigned for the purpose of severing imiform sections from acontinuously fed wire and is pro-' vided with means for regulating thelength of the sections so cut.

The object of the invention is to increase the speed of the'cuttingoperation by feeding the wire continuously rather than intermittently inthe manner commonly employed in the severing of wire sections. 7

The above results are obtained by employing a movable wire guide whichat uniform intervalsflexes the advancing wire laterally into the path oithe cutters and to the means provided for timing such flexions in ratioto the feeding speed at the wire" so that each cut will sever a sectionof uniform length depending upon the cooordinated adjustment of thevarious portions of the machine. a

Farther objects and details will appear from the description of theinvention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereine l is aside elevation of the machine as a "whole:

Fig. 2 is atop plan view of the machine showhis portions of the casingremoved;

Fig. 3 is anenlarsed cross sectional elevation taken on line 3-3 of Fig.2 showing the gear M1121 and cam for actuating the oscillating wire suie;

Fi 4 is a longitudinal sectional elevation taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3showing the wire guide and cutters;

Fig. 5 is a sectional plan view of the same parts rm. '1 and a aredetails in plan showing the osclllating wire guide in its two positionsoi! movettti meat: and v g. 9 is a cross sectional elevation taken online 8-9 of Fig. 2 showing the wire feeding mecha.

The machine as a whole is mounted upon a rectangular base comprisingafront wall il, a rear wall, II, and end walls It and".

the base at the entering end for the wire pro vides support for agrooved guide roller ll, bemonth which the wire W is fed and thencepasses between a group of wire straightening rolls Ii and between upperand lower feed 'roils II and H, which are driven at the desired feedingspeed by means presently to be described.

The wire fed forwardly by the bite of the feed rolls passes through asecond straightener it of the position II which is slidably mountedwithin a guide 3i well known type, in the form of a rapidly driven tubeprovided with sets of inwardly projecting fingers II, which are slightlystaggered at their inner wire contacting ends, so that as thestraightener is rapidly rotated all slight bends or 5 kinks in the wirewill be eliminated. Mechanism of this character is commonly employed inthe art for straightening purposes, so that further detailed descriptionis deemed unnecessary. The

leading end of the wire thus straightened passes 10 through anoscillating tubular wire guide 20 which, in conjunction with the rotarycutter rolls ill and 22 having coacting cutter blades 23, constitutesthe essential feature of the present invention. The axes of the cutterrolls extend transversely oi the line of travel of the wire, and thesurfaces of the rolls adjacent the cutter blades are spaced to permitthe free travel of the wire between the roll surfaces which rotate in 1.

unison in the direction of traveloi thewire.

Referring to Fig. 4, the wire guide is in the term of a longitudinallyextending tube through which the wire freely passes. The wire guide,

near its rear end, is entered through the head 24 of a vertical rockingstem iii journalled through a bracket 26 located slightly to the rear ofthe rotary cutters 2| (15 .22; The rocking stem at its lower end mountedthereon a collar 21 which receives the lower end of a coil spring 28,the upper end of which is socketed within the journal bracket 2|, sothat normally the oscillatinl be held in the position shown in Fig; I;which permits the wire to travel forwardly and to the rear of the cutterblades 23' carried by the rotary cutter rolls. At recurrent intervals,however. theguide will be swung into shown in Fig. 8, which brings thewire into the path of the cutter blades, so that at the proper instant asection of wire will be severed and delivered" into a trough orreceptacle 29 located at the delivery end of the machine. v

The wire guide 20 is oscillated at suitably timed intervals by themechanism best shown in Fig.3. This i includes athrust bar carried bythe front wall of a boxlike housing I2 supported upon the'basc frame ofthe machine. Within the housing is located a cam shaft 3] which mountsa-cam 34 provided with, a high spot II bar dlwili be momentarily thrustoutwardly. thereby windin the oscillating wire Ill dcto bring the wirein position to be severed by the cutters. The cam shaft is mountedwithin journals ll and I1, and at its outer end so disposedthat witheach rotation of carries a spur pinion 38 meshing with an idler justmentof the segment with the pinionscarried thereby, so that by employing apinion 38 of the desired size, and adjusting the position of the stubshaft 40, variations in speed ratio can justed in reverse relation toone 'tion 68, and the screw be made with a resultant variation in thetiming of the oscillating wire guide.

The jack shaft 42 at "its inner end mounts a bevel pinion 48, whichmeshes with a bevel pinion 49 carried by the cutter shaft 50 which atits forward end carries the lower cutter roll 22,thu s establishing thedesired speed ratio'between the rotation of the cutter rolls and theoscillating periodsoi the wire guide. The cutter shaft 50 carries a spurpinion Bl meshing with a spur pinion 52 on a jack shaft 53 which carriesthe upper cutter 2|. The jack shaft 53 is mounted within a journalbracket 54 slidably mounted within the front wall of the housing andadapted to be vertically adjusted by means of a screw 55 entered throughthe top wall of the housing, which arrangement permits limitedadjustment oi the spacing between the cutter rolls and the cutter bladescarried thereby.

The cutter shaft to is carried by obliquely disposed roller bearings 56and 57, and the iacl: shaft 53 by obliquely disposedroller bearings 5dand so. The cam shaft as is so mounted that it" extends longitudinallyof the machine and between the shafts 50 and 53, as shown in Fig. 6. Thecutter shaft so at its rear end is connected by a coupling 60 withareducing train of any suitable form for establishing the desiredpeedratio between the rotation of the feed rolls it and i1 and thecutter shafts and parts in train therewith. As shown for purposes ofillustration only, the coupling 60 unites the cutter shaft W with ashaft section 6! carrying a pair of opposed beveled pulleys 62 adaptedto be moved toward and from one another by the adjusting arms 68 carriedby a right and left threaded adjusting screw 64.

The beveled pulleys G2, which constitute the driving elements, cooperatewith beveled driven pulleys 65 adjustable by arms 66 mounted upon aright and left adjusting screw 61 having its threads in opposed relationto the threads of the adjusting screw member. The screw members aremoved in unison by a sprocket connecmember 64 is manually adjusted fromthe front of the machine by means of a hand wheel $9 on the forward endof a shaft 10 connected through .a sprocket chain H with. the adjustingscrew member 67, so that, by adjusting the latter, the pairs of beveledpulley members 85 and 62 will be simultaneously adanother to vary thespeed ratio between the shaft BI and ashaft 12, the beveled pulleymembers being connected by a belt '13. The shaft 7! drives asprocket-connection it which imparts rotation .to the lower wire icedroller I 'i which is mounted upon the forward end of a shaft 15journalled by roller bearings 78 within a housing TI. is mounted uponthe shaft 18 journalled by ried by a slide bracket an mounted within theforward end of a lack 40 which also carries the' The upper feed roller I5 roller bearings 19 car-- arated slightly to afford easy introductionof the wire or vary the spacing as occasion may 7 require.

The detailed construction of the cutter rolls 2| and 22 is bestillustrated in Figs. 4 and 6. Each of the cutters is in the form of adisk having 'a hub a: and cooperating with a ring 84 having in its innerface one or more grooves 85 (Fig. 5), which socket the chisel shapedcutter blades 23, the parts being held together by dowels 86 and capscrews 81, and the inner end of each cutter blade bearing against thehub 83 of the cutter. This gives to the assembly the form of acylindrical roll having projecting from its middle surface one or morechisel shaped cutter blades adapted to coact with a similarly mountedblade or blades on the companion roll.

Operation proper gear ratio is employed in the driving train for thecutters so that the coacting blades will arrive at the cutting at at theinstant the desired length of wire has been fed forwardly.

The cutters rotate toward direction of advance of the wire, so that,eventhough the wire be traveling ata rapid rate of speed, a clean cut willbe eil'ected without pause in the advancement of the wire, and thesevered sections will be thrown forwardly and accumulated in the bin orreceptacle provided therefor. If, therefore, it is desired to uniformlycut sections of two feet in length for example, the machine will beadjusted to feed this amount of wire forwardly in accurately timedrelation to the arrival of the cutter blades at the point of severance,and the oscillating Wire guide will also be timed to this ratio, so thatby establishing proper timing between these three instrumentalities,accuracy in the cutting 0d of the wire sections will be insured.

The machine as a whole is of simple and rugged construction, and byoperating the ruechine continuously rather than intermittently the speedof operation can be materially increased and wear and tear on theoperating parts one another in the reduced to a minimum. I

Although the invention has been described with particularity as todetails, it is obvious that numerous changes in the construction may beintroduced without departing from the spirit of the although the machine6 in the straight line of advance of the wire delivered from the feedingrolls and through which the wire is fed, said wire guide adapted to haveits forward end moved laterally, means for recurjacent to the normalpath of movement of the wire and adapted in conjunction to sever lengthsof wire when the wire guide is moved laterally to bring the wire intothe path of the cutter blades,

and driving connections between the wire feeding rolls, the means formoving the wire guide, and the cutters, for actuating the parts in timedrelation to one another, and continuously rotating the cutter blades inunison in the direction of travel of the wire. 7

FREDRIC c. MUNTWYLER.

